China Post, the “express big brother” who sells coffee out of the circle, has recently been eyeing the live broadcast with goods.
At 11 a.m. on May 17, the official account of “China Post · Jinjiang post” has been broadcast live for several hours. On the morning of weekday, the live broadcast of non head anchor with goods harvested 862 real-time viewers, more than 50000 likes, and constantly refreshing comment barrages.
“Summer is coming, the baby with oily skin must enter this”, “I haven’t seen this price in most of my life”, “only 15 orders, don’t make up after shooting”, “countdown 5 seconds” the anchor uses skilled live speech to promote the products in the live studio.
This is not the only postal company that carries goods live. Searching the word “China Post” on the Tiktok platform, we can see that more than 10 official branches such as Xinxiang post, Beijing post, Zhongshan post, Hefei post, Shantou post, Haikou post and Hangzhou post have opened live broadcasting services.
From selling milk tea and coffee to selling goods live, China post is grabbing the public’s attention through sidelines. The express business, as the main business, has a market share of only 11.5% under the attack of SF and three links and one da.
The number of fans in the live broadcasting rooms of postal services around the country is up to nearly one million
It is reported that the above officially certified China Post live account is an independent business attempt of local postal companies. China Post said recently that local postal companies have the autonomy to carry goods live on various platforms.
Among them, the hottest live studio is Jinjiang post in Chengdu, with nearly one million fans.
Times finance and economics learned that Jinjiang Post’s products are mainly beauty and skin care products, including sunscreen, skin care, washing and color makeup, and the brands are basically Estee Lauder, Keyan’s, SK-II and so on.
In the live broadcasting room, the anchors keep using “postal subsidy price” and “extremely preferential price” to attract consumers to place orders, which is also the main way for companies that have just entered the field of live broadcasting to attract consumers.
Take a 30ml essence of Estee Lauder as an example. On May 17, the pre-sale price of Jinjiang post live room was 499 yuan, while the price on CDF Hainan duty-free app was 795 yuan, and the price in LuoYongHao live room was 559 yuan. You can see from the product page that 7780 pieces of this essence have been sold.
However, like Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines Company Limited(600029) , which had previously carried out live broadcasting, the low-cost cosmetics of China Post also attracted some consumers’ doubts. Some buyers fed back that the SK-II fairy water ordered in the live broadcasting room “has different taste and color from that used now”; In addition, there have also been various unknown overseas flagship stores.
However, in addition to Jinjiang post, Beijing post and Hangzhou post taking beauty and skin care as their choices, Henan Huixian post and Hebei Xinji post mainly bring snacks and drinks, while more such as Henan Xinxiang post, Guizhou post and Hefei post live broadcasting room mainly bring Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co.Ltd(000061) and agricultural and sideline products.
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Taking advantage of its network coverage to villages and towns, China Post has initially built a rural e-commerce platform to open up the circulation channels of industrial products to the countryside and Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group Co.Ltd(000061) to the city. From 2019 to 2020, China Post’s e-commerce distribution business achieved revenue of about 12 billion yuan. According to the latest data, in the first quarter of 2022, China Post’s e-commerce distribution realized a cumulative revenue of 5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30%.
However, in the strange battlefield of live broadcasting room, China Post seems not to be really “out of the circle”.
Take Jinjiang Post Branch, the hottest branch of China Post, as an example. According to the popular data, in a 7-hour live broadcast starting at 11 a.m. on May 17, about 190000 people watched, sold 1991 pieces and 341700 yuan. Up to now, the average field sales of Jinjiang post is about 350000 yuan, and the delivery conversion rate is 1.19%, which is far lower than the delivery capacity of other beauty anchors.
In addition to Jinjiang post, Xinxiang post, Shanghai Post and Hefei post, the number of fans in other postal branches is basically less than 50000.
In order to achieve better delivery effect, China Post has also established a live broadcast MCN, which is responsible for the whole chain commercial operations such as anchor training, professional support and supply chain cooperation of China post anchor alliance.
Selling coffee and milk tea. In the past, I lined up for three hours. Now I get my order in five minutes
In addition to live delivery, China Post has also extended its sideline to coffee and tea tracks in the past two years.
In June 2021, China Post opened a milk tea shop “postal oxygen tea” in Fuzhou; On February 14, 2022, China Post opened the country’s first post office coffee shop in Xiamen. When the above stores first opened, they burst orders almost every day and became very popular. Many people punch in on the social platform.
With more than 50000 business branches across the country, the coffee and milk tea business of postal service was once unimaginable.
On May 15, three months after the opening of the first coffee shop, post office coffee ushered in a second shop in the country, located near Xiamen University. However, compared with the scene when the first postal coffee opened, this time did not attract much attention.
On May 16, Pan Pan (a pseudonym) clocked in the second newly opened post office coffee on the little red book. “There are quite a lot of people, but it was produced very quickly. I punched in and gave a mask.” Pan Pan told times finance that when she arrived at the store that afternoon, there were a lot of people in the post office, leaving only the last table, but she didn’t have to wait for three hours as the old store opened in the past.
Coffee lover Wang Xuan clocked in the first post office coffee during the May Day holiday. To my surprise, the scene was very deserted. “Plus me and my friends, there are four people at the scene.” Wang Xuan said that she completed the order and pick-up in less than five minutes.
In Wang Xuan’s view, post office coffee takes the online Red route. It tastes ordinary and the price is expensive. She will not choose to consume again. “Generally, it’s 22 yuan to 30 yuan a cup, which is about to catch up with Starbucks.”
Wang Hongdong, founder and catering analyst of fanbaodian, said that at present, there are some excellent brands in the high-end, middle-end and low-end of tea. If you want to break through, the products must have characteristics.
In his opinion, the location of tea is different from that of postal service, and many postal points are not suitable for making coffee and milk tea. If we only rely on packaging, concepts, feelings and IP, the repurchase rate is not high, which has been proved to be an infeasible path.
In addition, according to times finance, China Post has also tried to launch chain supermarkets and open self operated pharmacies, but they all showed an embarrassing situation of “thunder and rain”.
Gong Fuzhao, general manager of Shuangyi consulting, believes that the large network with more than 50000 outlets of China post is a channel and channel that can reach thousands of customers. Since there are channels and customers, it is understandable to do some product sales to increase revenue, reduce losses and revitalize resources.
More importantly, in Gong Fuzhao’s view, similar live selling and doing milk tea and coffee business actually broke people’s understanding of China Post. “The image of China Post in the past is too old and rigid. Through these marketing innovations, we can get more attention and change the image.
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The market share is only 10%, and the big brother of express refuses to admit defeat
Inevitably, when it comes to China Post, many people’s first reaction is “slow”. Behind this public perception is the shrinkage of China’s postal express business and the decline of market share.
Before 2000, China Post built a large express market with its unique business mode, with a market share of more than 90%, which can be said to be a dominant company.
However, with the establishment of private express companies such as Shunfeng, Shentong, Yunda, Yuantong, Zhongtong and Baishi, the development wave of China’s private express industry has been opened. Coupled with the revision of the postal law and the emergence of e-commerce, the competitive pattern of the express industry has undergone earth shaking changes, and China Post has gradually lagged behind.
In 2021, five head express companies, such as Santong Yida and SF, accounted for 72.81% of the market share, while China Post and other express companies accounted for less than 30% of the market share.
According to the statistics of Shuangyi consulting agency, from 2019 to 2021, the business volume of China post express delivery was 7.16 billion, 8.73 billion and 11.14 billion respectively. While the business volume continued to rise year by year, the market share decreased, 11.27%, 10.47% and 10.29% respectively, indicating that the business volume growth of other express delivery enterprises was much faster than that of China Post, further seizing more market share.
In terms of business volume and market share, China post is similar to Sto Express Co.Ltd(002468) at present. But at the same time, the lack of cost control and timeliness improvement makes the current profitability of China Post’s express business sector not optimistic. Although specific data have not been released in recent years, many people in the industry have revealed that it is in a state of loss.
According to the data of Shuangyi organization, the gross profit margin of China Post Express business in 2021 was about 6.9%. China Express recorded a gross profit margin of 21.67%, Yuantong and Yunda recorded 8.23% and 9.05%, and Shentong recorded a gross profit margin of 2.33%.
“China post is the largest network of express delivery companies, but its current package volume and market share are not the largest. The package volume is not enough to support this large network, so the loss is also serious.” Gong Fuzhao told times finance that the current market share of China post is not commensurate with its Jianghu status.
However, Gong Fuzhao also believes that it is difficult for China Post to innovate within the existing system. “The challenge of postal service mainly lies in the market. The express delivery market is a highly competitive market, which requires very flexible price mechanism, reaction speed, incentive policies and personnel management. However, for postal service, for example, the express delivery price is not as flexible as the access system, and it is more constrained.”
It is also understood that China Post has also made many reforms in recent years. For example, in June last year, it announced the official launch of a comprehensive speed-up, covering more than 1000 cities across the country, and will realize the next day delivery of mail in many provinces and cities across the country. At present, the reform effect of the former big brother has not been shown too much.
